Wool-combing machine



(No Model.)

. D. P. NORRIS.

WOOL GOMBING MACHINE.

N0. 411,053.- Patented Sept. 17,1889.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

DAVID P. NORRIS, OF LAWVRENCE, MASSACHUSETTS.

WOOL-COMBING MACHINE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 411,053, dated September 17, 1889.

Application filed May 21, 1888. Serial No. 274,515- (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, DAVID P. NORRIS, of Lawrence, county of Essex, State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in WVool-Combing Machines, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification, like letters on the drawings representing like parts.

My invention relates to a wool-combin g machine of the class known as Noble combs, in which there is a large circular comb which revolves within a circle of boxes through which the prepared wool is fed and two smaller circular combs contained within the large circle and receiving the wool therefrom.

In combin g-machines of this class the fibers are drawn out from the interior of the large circular comb at two points on its periphery and from the exterior of the small circular combs at one point on the periphery of each, and the fibers thus drawn from the combs are carried by the aprons by which they are drawn from the combs to a point where they are all united in a single sliver, which is finally delivered from the machine through a delivery tube or trumpet.

In machines as heretofore made the fibers that are brought together by the aprons have been united in a single sliver at a point near the center of the machine,which sliver is then carried vertically upward through a rotating trumpet or guide-tube, which imparts a slight twist to the sliver passing through it and from which the sliver is carried by suitable guides into the receiving endof the delivery tube or trumpet, which is at a much higher level than the combs. This construction and method of operation involves the use of a considerable amount of machinery that acts upon the sliver between the point where it is taken from the aprons and the point where it enters the delivery-trumpet; and the present invention is based on the discovery that the sliver can be taken directly from the aprons to the mouth of a delivery tube or trumpet at the same level as the combs, thereby doing away with the machinery referred to and at the same time producing an improved product, as the two portions of the sliver coming from the two aprons are more intimately united into a single sliver, but without any twist.

The rotating trumpet used prior to this invention for receiving the two portions of the sliver and imparting a sufiicient twist thereto to keep them united as they passed to the other guides by which they were carried to the delivery-trumpet was a very obj ectionable feature, as rotation was imparted to said trumpet by a belt which was likely to break and fall into the gearing of the machine and thus cause considerable breakage and loss of time.

The present invention consists, mainly, in a wool-combing machine having the usual large and small circular combs and carryingaprons with guides by which the fibers are taken from said aprons directly to the mouth of a delivery tube or trumpet, which mouth is at the same level with the combs, and which tube is then curved upward, so as to pass above the main comb or large circle in order to deliver the sliver from the machine.-

Figure 1 is a plan view of a sufficient portion of a wool-combing machine to illustrate this invention, a portion of the deliverytrumpet being shown in section; Fig. 2, a detail showinga portion of the delivery-trumpet and co-operating devices in vertical section, and Fig. 3 a detail to be referred to.-

The main portion of the machine comprises the large circular comb a, the boxes I), (a portion only of which are shown,) through which the rolls of prepared wool (one of which is indicated at c, Fig. 1) are fed to the said comb a and the small circular combs cl d, and means for actuating the said parts which may all be of the usual construction, such as are found in wool-combing machines that have been in use for many years. Thelonger fibers are drawn out from the large comb a at two points on its interior opposite one another by endless aprons e e and co operating rolls f f all actuated in the usual manner, the fibers thus drawn forming continuous slivers, (indicated at g g,) and being carried along by other endless aprons h h, which, in conjunction with the drawing-oft rolls 2' i, also take the fibers from the small combs d d, as shown, the said fibers uniting with the slivers g 9' taken from the main comb and being carried therewith by the aprons h h, as shown at 7c, the two slivers being moved in substantially opposite direct-ions by the said aprons, as shown.

In order to unite the two slivers or strips of combed fiber as they come from the aprons 71 h into a single sliver and to deliver such single sliver from the machine ready for the subsequent operations, the machine is,in accordance with this invention, provided with guide-rolls or binders m m, by which the slivers from the two aprons are brought together, the sliver 7a passing about both of said guides on m and uniting with the sliver k on the guide on, from which the two slivers pass together to a stationary guidetube n, (best shown in Fig. 2,) through which the two slivers are directed into the bite of calender-rolls 0, which are driven at about the same surface speed that the sliver advances, and thus carry it forward and at the same time compress the mass of fiber which is delivered from the said rolls 0 into the mouth of the delivery tube or trumpet p in suitable condition for the subsequent operations. The guide-tube a and mouth of the delivery-tube 7) are at substantially the the same level as the aprons and combs, and the fiber is taken directly from the said aprons to the said guide-tube 02, which, together with the carrying-rolls 0, compresses the two portions of the sliver coming from the two aprons into a single sliver, which is very homogeneous and not likely to become separated into two strands or portions corresponding to the portions taken from the two feed-aprons, as is the case when the two portions are carried through a rotating trumpet, as has been previously commonly practiced. The delivery tube or trumpet 1) extends upward from its mouth in a reverse curve, as shown in Fig. 9, so that the body of the trumpet is at a higher level than the point at which the fiber is received in it, and extends out over the large circular comb and boxes, so as to deliver the sliver into the usual cans, the said sliver being somewhat compressed as it enters the trumpet, owing to the column or mass of sliver in front of it, which has to be pushed forward and upward as the new material enters.

By the herein described construction a large saving in the first costof the machine, as well as a saving of power in driving the machine, is effected, and the sliver is delivered from the machine without having a twist applied to it in any stage of the operation, and is firmer and more homogeneous in character than the product of wool-combing ma chines as heretofore usually made.

The delivery-tubes in machines as heretofore commonly made are of large bore and extend downward from the end at which the sliver is received to that at which it is delivered, and in order to compress the sliver in the tube a weighted door or cover is placed over the delivery end of the tube, so that the sliver carried into the tube by the machin e will fill up the tube and be somewhat compressed before it pushes open the weighted cover, so as to escape from the delivery end of the tube into the receiving-can. Such compression is provided for in the machine forming the subject of this invention without the use of a weighted cover by making the tube somewhat smaller and by its rising upward from the delivery end, as shown in Fig. 2, so that the sliver carried into the tube by the cal ender-rolls 0 has to lift and push forward a mass of sliver previously carried into the tube, and thus suiiiciently compressed within the tube.

The binders m m are adj ustably connected with the bed-plate or frame-work of the machine, as shown in Fig. 3, said binders being supported on a bracket having a slotted foot which receives a bolt by which it is fastened upon the bed-plate of the machine, so that the binders may be set in the most advantageons position, which would depend somewhat on the nature of the fiber being combed.

An important feature of the invention consists in having the calender-rolls and binders that guide and convey the sliver into the delivery-tube so near the drawing-off rolls '1; i and aprons h h that the sliver may be carried into the delivery-tube without any twist, while in the machines heretofore generally used it is necessary to impart some twist to the sliver in order to hold it together in its passage from the drawing-off rolls and aprons to the delivery-tube, owing to the great distance of the latter from the former.

I claim-- 1. The combination of the large and small combs and drawing-off rolls and aprons of a wool-combin g machine with a single deliverytube having its receiving end substantially at the level of the aprons and guides by which the fiber from the aprons taken from all the combs is directed without twist into the said tube, substantially as described.

2. The combination of the large and small combs and drawing-off rolls and aprons of a wool-combing machine with a single stationary guide-tube into which the united fiber from both aprons is carried and calenderrolls and a delivery-tube having its mouth opposite the said guide-tube, into which deliverytube the sliver is carried from the guide-tube by the calender-rolls, substantially as described.

3. The combination of the large and small combs and drawing-off rolls and aprons of a wool-combing machine with a stationary delivery-tube having its receiving end substantially at the level of the aprons, and adjustable binders by which the fiber from the aprons is directed into the said tube, and means for fastening said binders in adjusted position, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

DAVID P. NORRIS.

\Vituesses:

Guns. '1. Man, JonN II. BAILEY. 

